


The Curious Case of the Cat in the Sink

by raisedinthunder



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Just Add Kittens, Meet-Cute, levihan secret santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 07:20:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17341052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raisedinthunder/pseuds/raisedinthunder
Summary: There was definitely a cat sat in his kitchen sink. This probably wasn’t a strange occurrence for most cat owners. Cats were weird, they did weird things, they sat in weird places.However this was not his cat. Levi did not own a cat.





	The Curious Case of the Cat in the Sink

**Author's Note:**

> Gift for @/introspective-iceberg on tumblr for the LeviHan Secret Santa :)
> 
> Hope you like it!

At first he wasn’t sure if it was his sleep addled brain that was causing him to see it. Was his mind playing tricks on him? Was he still asleep?  
Levi yawned and rubbed his eyes.  
Opening them again he stared at it. Nope. Not dreaming. There was definitely a cat sat in his kitchen sink. The cat simply stared back at him. This probably wasn’t a strange occurrence for most cat owners. Cats were weird, they did weird things, they sat in weird places.   
However this was not his cat. Levi did not own a cat.   
The cat in question continued to stare at him. It was ginger, bright orange fur seeming to gleam in the early morning light shining in though the kitchen window. He didn’t even know anyone in the building who had a ginger cat? And how had it even gotten in his apartment in the first place? Had he left the door open? He highly doubted it but he went to check anyway.   
Nope. The door was firmly closed and locked just like it had been when he went to bed.  
Back when there most definitely hadn’t been a cat in his apartment.

Returning to the kitchen he found the cat had not moved. It was still sat in his sink. What was he supposed to do? Maybe it had a collar with a name and number on like Erwin’s dog did. Slowly Levi approached the cat. It didn’t seem particularly bothered about Levi coming closer but he knew cat’s were temperamental creatures and he didn’t want to risk it clawing his eyes out.  
‘Okay, I’ll make a deal with you. You refrain from clawing me to shit and I’ll get you some food before returning you to your owner okay?’ Levi said when he was stood in front of the sink.  
The cat just blinked at him.  
‘Right then.’ Levi said and taking a deep breathe he reached out a hand. The cat moved at last, sniffing at his outstretched hand but it didn’t claw him. Thank god.   
There was a collar there, the thin line of black nestled amongst the orange fur. Levi ran his fingers along the the collar, the cat remaining quite still and unbothered.   
‘Shit.’   
No tag. Whoever owned this cat clearly wasn’t thinking about its potential disappearance and hadn’t bothered with a tag. Leaving Levi clueless about the animal’s origin.  
Putting his hands on his hips Levi looked down at the cat. What the fuck was he supposed to do now?   
The cat mewled at him, almost as thought it was responding to his thoughts. He couldn’t help think it was reminding him about the offer of food.  
‘Food right, I think I have a can of tuna somewhere. Cats like tuna right?’ He asked, the cat mewled at him again in reply.

Levi quickly rummaged through his cupboards, eventually finding a can of tuna shoved to the back. He emptied it out into a small bowl and placed it on counter beside the sink. The cat peered up at him.  
‘There you go. That’s all there is so if you’re expecting something better tough shit.’ He told it.  
The cat just blinked at him again.  
Levi shrugged and went back to his bedroom to find his phone. When he returned the cat was still sat in the sink, tuna untouched. Hmm, maybe it didn’t like tuna or simply wasn’t hungry? There wasn’t much he could do either way. He decided to leave the tuna out though incase the cat deemed it worthy of its attention later.   
Levi leaned back against the counter opposite the cat and checked his phone. He only had a couple of emails he could respond to later so he decided to take a quick photo of the sink cat and send it to his friends.

__  
ME  
[Image attached]  
There is a cat in my sink. 

_ERWIN  
When did you get a cat?_

_ME  
I didn’t. It was just there when I got up._

_ERWIN  
Wtf lol? Guess you have a cat now :’)_

_ME  
No I don’t. What the fuck am I supposed to do with it?_

_ERWIN  
I dunno, throw it out? It’s gotta be someone’s in the building right?_

_ME_  
I guess. I’m not just gonna throw it out into the building though.   
I need to find it’s owner. 

_ERWIN_  
So ask around? Someone will know who it belongs to.  
If not you’ve got yourself a new cat lol  
  
Levi frowned down at his phone. He guessed Erwin was right, he should ask around the building. Someone will know who the cat belonged to. He knew that there were a few people with cats in the building, Mrs Kim downstairs had that fat tabby and the family across from her had a kitten. Neither of those were ginger though. He looked up to find the cat no longer in the sink. A shot of panic laced through him but was quickly quelled at the sight of the cat finally helping itself to the bowl of tuna. Taking advantage of the cat finally removing itself from the sink Levi filled the kettle, he was gonna need some tea before he ventured out, and a bowl of water for the cat. It would probably be thirsty if it had been sat in the sink all night.

Once he’d had some tea Levi got dressed. The cat had moved itself from the kitchen into the sitting room now. It was sat in front of the fire. The cat was staring into the fake flames and Levi worried a bit at how close the animal was sitting to the heat. But he guessed if it got to hot it would move, cats were supposed to smart, he was sure it wouldn’t just sit there and melt itself.  
‘Okay I’m going to see if I can find your owner. Don’t destroy my apartment.’ He told it.  
The cat didn’t respond, not that he was expecting it to, to be honest he wasn’t sure why he was even talking to it. It probably didn’t understand him. It was a cat for gods sake.   
Grabbing his phone and keys Levi slipped out of the apartment and began his search.

It didn’t take long for Levi to find the cat’s owner. He’d knocked on the doors on his floor to no avail but venturing upstairs had been more successful. He’d just turned away from the first door when he heard her.  
‘Where fuck are you? For gods sake I can’t believe this.’  
Levi turned the corner to be faced with a worried looking woman. He’d never seen her before but she was clearly clad in pyjamas so she must live in the building. Levi eyed her a little warily all the same, maybe she was just some crazy person who’d broken into the apartment building? He definitely hadn’t seen her before and he knew all the people who lived her, or at least their faces. She was not one of them.  
The woman was taller than him. Brown hair tied up messily in ponytail, black framed glasses sitting a little askew on her face. Her pyjamas were pink and white stripes and covered in what looked like bunnies with obnoxiously pink bunny slippers to match.  
Who the hell left their house looking like that if not a crazy person?  
‘Oh hi! You haven’t by any chance seen a cat have you? She asked finally noticing Levi.  
‘Is it ginger?’ He asked.  
‘Yes! Black collar, a little porky but not ridiculous like that tabby from downstairs.’ She said sounding hopeful.  
That sounded like the cat from Levi’s sink.   
‘I think I might have your cat.’ He told her and a relief flooded the woman’s face.  
‘Oh thank god! I’ve been looking for him all morning.’   
‘He’s in my apartment.’ Levi said and he headed for the stairs, the woman following.  
‘He must’ve escaped during the night the little shit. Can’t believe we’ve been in here one day and he’s already snuck out.’ She said as the descending. So she was new to the building, that explains why Levi didn’t recognise her and now that he thought about it there had been an empty apartment on the third floor.

When they reached Levi’s apartment he led them inside. The woman who had introduced herself as Hange Zoe let out a delighted cry at the sight of her cat. The animal still sat in front of the fire. It meowed at her as she knelt beside it, stopping it up into her arms.  
‘I’m gonna fucking kill you if you do that again. I’ve been worried sick!’ She said holding the cat up in front of her face. The cat just mewled at her.  
‘Where did you find him?’ She asked turning to Levi.  
‘He was in my sink.’   
‘What?’   
‘My kitchen sink. He was sat in it when I got up this morning.’ Levi explained. Thought it still didn’t actually explain much and he was still confused about how the cat had gotten inside his apartment.  
‘Huh, how did he get in?’ Hange asked getting up and joining Levi where he’d sat on the sofa.  
‘I’ve been trying to work that out myself.’  
‘Hmm. I thought he’d maybe slipped out when I was bringing some boxes in yesterday. Was your door open at all late last night?’ She asked.  
‘No, I don’t think so and it was definitely still locked up when I got up.’  
Hange sat quietly for a little while, clearly trying to work out how the cat had gotten from her apartment on the third floor down to Levi’s on the first. He tried to think about it himself and he just couldn’t work it out. It’s not like the door to his balcony had been open or anything.   
‘Wait did you have your balcony doors or any windows open?’ Hange asked suddenly.  
‘I don’t think so.’ Levi said looking towards the sliding doors that opened up to the balcony.  
‘Hmm, I was just thinking I left my bathroom window open while I showered it could’ve been that but if you didn’t-‘  
‘Wait! The bathroom!’ Levi said getting up. He quickly ran through to the bathroom and yep the window was open. He’d done the same the night before, opening the window to let the steam out while he’d showered and clearly forgotten to close it again. There was a massive tree outside and the must’ve climbed down it and into Levi’s open window.  
‘It was open.’ Levi said returning to the sitting room.  
Hange nodded obviously having came to the same conclusion as Levi. The cat had climbed out of her bathroom window into the tree and worked its way down until it could climb into his window.  
‘Think I’m gonna have to change his name to Houdini.’ Hange said with a laugh.  
‘It would be fitting.’ Levi said.  
‘Well thank you for looking after him. Most people would’ve just thrown him out.’ She said gratefully.  
‘He was no trouble. Although I was a little worried about his obsession with my fireplace.’  
‘Was he sitting ridiculously close?’ She asked, Levi nodded. ‘Yeah he does that, not sure why. I keep thinking one of these days he’ll just straight up climb into the grate.’  
Levi smiled at the thought.  
‘Maybe that’ll be his next trick. First one was the disappearing act, the next fire dancer.’ She added and Levi couldn’t stop the laugh that came out.

Hange ended up staying for some tea and Levi found out she’d just moved due to getting a new job at the university where Levi worked. It was weird how easy the conversation seemed to flow between them and while she was definitely a little odd Levi liked her. She told him a few stories about the stupid things her cat got up to and before they knew it it was lunch time.  
‘I should probably get him home.’ She said getting up and collecting the cat from in front of the fire where it had returned when they’d sat chatting.  
‘Yeah you’re gonna need to change out of those pyjamas eventually.’ Levi said showing her to the door.  
‘Pfft what makes you think I’m gonna do that?’  
‘Really? You’re gonna spend the day in those?’  
‘And what is wrong with my pyjamas exactly?’ She asked teasingly.  
Levi just rolled his eyes.  
‘Thanks again for looking after Houdini here.’ Hange said as they stood in the doorway.  
‘No problem. Try not to lose him again.’  
‘I can’t make any promises. See you around Levi.’ She said smiling widely and lifting the cat’s paw up in a wave.  
Levi snorted and waved them off.

It would be less than a week before he saw Hange and her cat again. The cat having made yet another bid for freedom, Hange hot on its tail. Levi couldn’t say he was unhappy about seeing the two again, even if he had almost tripped over the stupid ginger beast. Something told him it was something he should get used to. That running into Hange and her escape artist cat was going to become a regular part of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> As always thank you for any comments/kudos they mean the world <3
> 
> And you can find me on tumblr [here](http://raisedinthunder.tumblr.com)


End file.
